Safer Internet Day 2013

The Europol Cyber Crime Centre is proud to support Safer Internet Day 203 in cooperation with the Council of Europe, the European Commission, and the Member States of the European Union.

Every day our specialist teams work to rescue children from sexual abuse perpetrated via the Internet. We use our technical skills to crack the codes used by offenders, and support international investigations which result in arrests and prosecutions of those responsible for abuse, and the safeguarding of hundreds of children worldwide.

In one recent case, Europol coordinated a major crackdown on online child sexual abuse file-sharing networks in 26 European countries. So far ‘Operation Icarus’ has helped to identify 269 suspects and arrest 112 suspects, spread across 22 involved countries.

Last year with the leading support of Europol, police arrested 184 suspected child sex offenders and safeguarded 230 children in Operation Rescue, one of the biggest investigations of its kind by law enforcement agencies across the world.

We also recognise that when it comes to Internet safety, prevention is of paramount importance. That`s why we are members of the Virtual Global Taskforce (VGT), which not only coordinates law enforcement responses to online child abuse but also promotes international awareness raising and the online reporting of abuse before it happens.

It`s why we chair the European Financial Coalition, in which we work with industry to prevent the distribution of child abuse material. And it`s why our own experts advise Internet users on how to protect themselves online. You can find our latest information sheet, on Identity Theft, on our website.

The European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) is working extra hard to make sure that children, young people and their parents can find the information they need to stay safe online.

As part of EC3’s activity for Safer Internet Day 2013, we are launching a competition to see who can produce the best online safety art in Europe. And you could win a tablet computer and a special VIP trip to see how we fight crime at Europol!

About Europol

Europol is the law enforcement agency of the European Union. Our aim is to help achieve a safer Europe by supporting the law enforcement agencies of European Union member states in their fight against international serious crime and terrorism.

More than 700 staff at Europol headquarters in The Hague, the Netherlands work closely with law enforcement agencies in the 27 European Union member states and in other non-EU partner states such as Australia, Canada, the USA and Norway.